The EU made a significant contribution to biodiversity and climate resilience by removing a record 239 barriers last year. Spain was the top remover of dams and wiers. Removing these barriers that are obsolete or not needed will allow migrating fish to return to their historic spawning grounds as well as improve water quality by increasing natural flows. Free flowing rivers transport sediment and nutrients that often become bogged behind structures leading to toxic algae blooms and low oxygen levels. There has been a
93% decline in migratory fish populations in Europe in the last 50 years. [before and after removal in Haut Jura France, credit
UK Guardian]
Hydro power is often thought of as clean energy, but it does have adverse environmental impacts that make removal of obsolete river barriers common sense. Portugal, Montenegro, and Slovakia removed their first structures in 2021. Finland removed a working hydropower dam on the Hiitolanjoki River, which will allow landlocked salmon to return to their spawning grounds.
Dam removal is often considered a
radical idea. For example conservationists in the US have been calling for the removal of dams on the Snake River to help a dwindling population of Columbia River salmon rebound. Removal of an abandoned paper mill at historic Willamette Falls has taken decades of bureaucratic wrangling and ownership disputes before work can begin on removing the eyesore and allow public access to the second largest falls by volume in the Pacific Northwest. [photo right]
The cost of removal often is a stumbling block. Spain has a law that requres a dam owner to pay for removal if it is abandoned. NGOs are stepping in to pay for projects. A new group formed two years ago in Europe, Open Rivers, provides grants for barrier removal. The program officially supports 19 small dam removals across 11 countries that will open approximately 386 kilometres of Europe’s rivers.
